Ivy Bridge is an enhanced die shrink of the Sandy Bridge architecture with improvements on both GPU and CPU performance. The CPUs are produced in 22nm (versus 32nm Sandy Bridge CPUs) and are the first to introduce 3D transistors for increased energy efficiency when compared to similarly clocked Sandy Bridge processors. Other new features are integrated PCI Express 3.0 and DDR3(L)-1600 support.

The performance of the Core i5-3570K is slightly above a similarly clocked Sandy Bridge processor due to slight architectural improvements. Compared to AMD's fastest desktop CPU (FX-8350), the Core i5-3570K offers significantly higher performance per thread, but features less cores (4 instead of 8). Overall, the Core i5 is still a bit faster in most applications.

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU offers 16 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at 650 MHz up to 1150 MHz with Turbo Boost. For recent games, the performance is only sufficient for low resolutions and details.

The total power consumption of the CPU, graphics and memory controller is specified by Intel at 77 watts (TDP).